Last day of school.

I kind of forgot we were going to have radishes- good thing Trav and Charlie are on the ball. A tasty treat to go along with brats, potato salad and jello for lunch on our last day of school- very traditional.
~Becky

Popcorn and a Movie.

Every time Daddy is home at night, Charlie wants him to take a bath (I would have loved to put a picture of this up, but pretty sure it would not be appreciated- lots of bubbles, though) and make popcorn. After only one time of remembering how to make it, Trav has gotten really good at popcorn on the stove-top, we don't even add butter or salt (much better for preggo people, too). But, we have learned one very important lesson- if we give Charlie the whole bowl, he will not share, and he will sit there and try to eat the whole thing. He even tells us, "Me eat all that". So we now have to each have our own bowl.
~Becky

I've been meaning to put a list up like the one below because I find it handy as a reference  and I like this one from the Environmental Working Group because it is current. They analyze data from the Department of Agriculture about pesticide residue and rank foods based on how much or little pesticide residue they have. The group has estimated that individuals can reduce their exposure by 80% if they switch to organic when buying these 12 foods.

Read more: Dirty Dozen Foods with High Pesticide Residue - Best Organic Foods to Eat - The Daily Green 

FYI These "meatballs" are made from organic homemade play dough. Eat at your own risk. I'm not sure why they are flat, but it was cute that he needed to borrow my cookie/meatball scoop to make them.
He informed me this morning that he can bake a cake by himself. I asked him how, and he said put in pan and put pan in oven. He also told me last night "Mama have big butt", and I think he meant it as a compliment. I'm trying really hard to enjoy every second of this stage of speech development, how he talks and what he says, because I know that I'm going to miss it terribly. I will not, however, miss having play dough stuck to my floor (oh, I probably will miss that someday, too).

~Becky

EWG's 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™

DIRTY DOZEN PLUS^TM

Apples

Celery

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumbers

Grapes

Hot peppers

Nectarines - imported

Peaches

Potatoes

Spinach

Strawberries

Sweet bell peppers

Kale / collard greens +

Summer squash +

CLEAN FIFTEEN^TM

Asparagus

Avocados

Cabbage

Cantaloupe

Sweet Corn

Eggplant

Grapefruit

Kiwi

Mangos

Mushrooms

Onions

Papayas

Pineapples

Sweet peas - frozen

Sweet potatoes

Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb

 Rhubarb Lemonade (from Beth Dooley in the La Crosse Tribune): Put about 3 cups chopped rhubarb into a large glass bowl and cover it with water. Let the rhubarb sit overnight. Strain off the "lemonade" and sweeten to taste with sugar or honey. Serve over ice. We used honey, and it was delicious!

Asparagus Frittata (from Parents magazine): 5 eggs, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1/2 cup fresh asparagus cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1/2 lb.)
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray and set it aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir in asparagus and pour into prepared pie plate. Bake about 20 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and let stand about 5 minutes before slicing. Makes 4 servings. I also added spring onions, and again delicious!

And with whole-wheat toast and jam, we had ourselves a very scrumptious breakfast for lunch (no leftovers). Seasonal eating is the best. Credit to the Wiste farm for the eggs and honey.

~Becky

Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig...

A view of Lake Como.

Unfortunately I was unable to bring back a fat pig (as transportation of meat products from Europe is frowned upon), but I did bring back plenty of pictures and stories. As I am sorting through these photos, I would like to share them with you here, as I was supposed to do while in Italy and Ireland. While I cannot promise regular installments, I will try to get through them all before the end of summer and will thus relate to you all stories of my 2 months in Europe within the next 3 or 4. Please have patience. Above all, however, I promise to do my best to entertain (and possible enthrall), and hope to never bore; I hope that through these photos and my words I can adequately narrate not only what I saw and where I went, but also some thoughts and impressions that I had while there.

A super night with good friends, good wine and good food!

 The rest of this blog-post is dedicated to Pizzoccheri. This is a dish I ate while at Bagaggera (the farm I worked at) and is particular to that small region around Lago di Como and Lecco. Cassie, the British girl living on the farm, made it for my parting supper and told me more or less how to make it. Fortunately, the cookbook my Mother gifted me a few years ago, and which I highly recommend, Cooking with Italian Grandmothers, by Jessica Theroux, also offered a recipe. Although not exactly the same, I used it to guide me in making the buckwheat noodles, topped with lots of cheese, butter, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, a hint of sage, salt and pepper. The below are pictures from here in Minnesota.

Eggs and flour.

Kneading it all together.

The finished dough.

Silly me! I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Nonetheless, it was delicious. If anyone would like the recipe, feel free to ask!

It's that time of the year again (finally).

We love us some spring multiplier onions around here. While I'm waiting for my favorites- lilacs and peonies, to bloom, I like to have a few extra picked and cleaned so I can admire them in a clear glass as one would a flower bouquet, with the convenience of pulling out a few to use (just remember to change your water once or twice a day). We don't have as many this year because we moved them last year, but the ones we do have are dandies and it is so fun to start using some fresh veggies. For green vegetables, I only have a half bag of broccoli and a few small miscellaneous bags (asparagus and okra, I think) left in the freezer.

So today, with spring onions, I made Rice with Carrots. I do have a lot of frozen blanched carrots left, and this is so far my favorite way, besides soup maybe, to eat them. They just aren't as good cooked and eaten plain as fresh ones are. This is the first time I didn't over cook my rice (it only took me three times), and I substituted about 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth I needed to use up for some of the water. I'll probably halve the recipe next time, but it went over pretty good with marinaded pork chops. I would put that recipe on here, but it wasn't a favorite. It was still good and moist, and the pork chops themselves were amazing, but it had more lemon juice and vegetable oil in it then I have used before. Typically I like a marinade with a lot of vinegar, and small amounts of soy sauce and Worcestershire with a little bit of olive oil.

I figured why not blog a little bit more about food. Gardening is our biggest summer hobby so its actually a good insight as to what we've been up to, and Katie and I both listened to a public radio broadcast this week about Michael Pollen, who is an author of many food books. Trav also brought home an article from the star tribune in which they interviewed the same guy! The premise of his book is that cooking is one of the most important things we can do, and yet the average person spends only 27 minutes cooking and 4 minutes cleaning up. That's per day!
I think this is the correct link, if you'd like to listen:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=180824408

~Becky

Aged Cheddar

My mother was going on about grilled cheese sandwiches made with aged cheddar, so I had to try it for myself. We also used it plain, on sandwiches, and of course melted in tomato soup (I think we are down to just two pints of soup left for the year). It is made from grass fed cow's milk, and was rich and creamy as advertised. I'm not sure really what the consensus is on the kerrygold brand, however so far we've liked all three varieties that we've tried.

~Becky

April 2013 - Thought y'all might enjoy these...